Previous research suggests that anxiously withdrawn preadolescents demonstrate success in forming friendships, yet these friendships tend to be of lesser quality. Drawing on Selman's (1980) theory of interpersonal understanding, we compared levels of friendship understanding between anxiously withdrawn preadolescents and a sample of non-withdrawn…

The primary objectives of this investigation were to determine the extent to which young adolescents are stable in high perceived popular status across the middle school transition and to examine whether changes in social behaviors predict the stability, gain, and loss of perceived popular status after the transition. The sample included 672 young…

The moderating effect of maternal behavior in the relations between social reticence and shyness in preschool and subsequent social withdrawal was investigated. Eighty children (47 females) were judged for degree of social reticence during play with unfamiliar peers at the age of four and mothers completed the Colorado child temperament inventory…

The frequency and distribution of social problem-solving strategies, goals, targets, and outcomes were coded during preschoolers' free play. Flexibility and persistence in problem-solving sequences were examined, and the relative importance of strategies, goals, targets, and the identity of the problem solver in predicting social problem-solving…

A total of 18 male and 16 female preschoolers were assessed on observational measures of social interaction and communicative egocentrism. The results indicated negative relationships between the egocentric speech of the child and the incidence of peer interaction. (MS)

Compared the psychological characteristics of withdrawn, aggressive, and average fifth-grade children. Both withdrawn and aggressive children were found to be less popular among peers than were the average group; the aggressive group was most actively disliked. Teachers rated aggressive children as most hostile and as having more learning problems…

This study investigates the interaction of three cognitive (functional, constructive, dramatic) and three social (solitary, parallel, group) dimensions of free play activities and their stability over time among boys and girls in a preschool setting. Subjects were 18 children attending a university preschool in Southwestern Ontario. Data for each…

Four-year-old children showing low levels of social behavior in a laboratory play session with unfamiliar peers were classified as reticent (unoccupied or onlooking behaviors) or solitary-passive (solitary constructive or exploratory play). Compared with a group of more social children, the children in both low-social groups were rated high on…

Examined parents' emotional responses to aggression and social withdrawal in early childhood, beliefs about the causes of problematic social behaviors, and strategies for responding to aggression and withdrawal. Considered variation in parental beliefs as a function of child sex and differences between mothers and fathers. (RH)

Assessed the extent to which preferential personal attraction was associated with behavioral similarity among newly acquainted children. Found that "discriminating" children were more behaviorally similar to preferred playmates than nonpreferred playmates, both in terms of cognitive play style and social participation. (AA)

The purpose of the present study was to examine European American and Mainland Chinese mothers' responses to preschoolers' social behaviours (aggression and social withdrawal) within a cultural framework. Participants were 103 European American mothers from Washington DC, and 100 Mainland Chinese mothers from Beijing and Baoding cities, China. The…

Assessed mothers' childrearing attitudes and toddler behavior to predict mothers' emotions, attributions, parenting goals, and socialization strategies in response to vignettes depicting aggressive and withdrawn child behaviors two years later. Found that most child effects were moderated by maternal attitudes or gender effects. Authoritarian…

Studied the extent to which mothers' beliefs about children's social behaviors change during their children's transition from early to middle childhood and the extent to which these beliefs can be predicted from the circumstances of the mothers' lives and the mothers' perceptions about the social support resources available to them. (BB)